


Tastes Like Corporeal Chicken

by spotonchecks



Category: Original Work
Genre: Crack, Loss of Virginity, M/M, Obsession, Porn with Feelings, Post-Coital Cuddling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-20
Updated: 2018-10-20
Packaged: 2019-08-01 12:05:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16284305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spotonchecks/pseuds/spotonchecks
Summary: Nenn has never had a body before, and so he cannot explain this body’s strange reaction to Justin, his neighbor from across the street.





	Tastes Like Corporeal Chicken

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fairleigh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fairleigh/gifts).



> Hello Fairleigh! I really enjoyed writing this story for you, and I hope you enjoy it as well. :)

There weren’t so many planets abundant with life that the Ever could afford to ignore it when a new one came to be, but its priorities and timelessness were such that a visit often didn’t occur until well into the planet’s existence. For the planet known as Earth, it had circled its sun several billion times before the Ever assigned the responsibility of research to one of its own, a figment known as Nenn that had come into being a microsecond after Nenm and a microsecond before Neno. There was no logical reason for this choice above the rest, as Nenn was its subject the same as any other, but the Ever believed that Nenn had a potential unrealized, a curiosity unfound, and so it assigned a body, assigned a purpose, and sent Nenn on “his” way.

It was a sign of the Ever’s great and mysterious powers that Nenn manifested in a small, thriving community known as Naperburg, looking every inch like he belonged among his suburban neighbors. There was the occasional odd glance to be sure, mostly due to the fact that his dwelling had appeared between one minute and the next on the fringes of Birch Street, but the Ever had also imbued him with knowledge and abilities far beyond humans. By the time he had brought his home-brewed wine, lemon chicken, and pasta salad to three different gatherings, people mostly stopped questioning if that four-bedroom house had _really_ been there from the start, and Nenn (in his identity as “Christopher Williams,” a suitably ordinary man) soon began his research without interference. Or at least that had been his intention.

Unfortunately, what little Nenn knew about humans from the start—all of their history and much of their future, thanks to the Ever—was of little practical use while living among them, and of even less use while navigating a human body through the passage of time. These things were never more obvious than when he was dealing with his closest neighbor, Justin of the light blue house across the street, and for a while, Nenn was convinced it was test from the Ever (a mistake was, of course, impossible.) Otherwise, what was the purpose of having Nenn’s body behave so strangely around one human in particular, or the purpose of filling his limited range of human thoughts with opinions on Justin’s dark hair, light brown eyes, slim build, and corrective eye glasses? If Nenn was to be effective at all at his task of learning everything about humans and their foibles, surely it was a flaw to be so focused on only one human out of an impressive 7.4 billion. Nenn didn’t understand why he’d been given this particular weakness, why the underside of his arms grew damp and his capacity for speech fled whenever Justin was near. It was worse than hunger or thirst or the physical realities of a body that could be damaged, and Nenn disliked it, but not to the extent that avoiding Justin crossed his brand-new mind.

It took six months for Nenn to figure out what the problem was, and he blamed the delay entirely on the fact that the Smiths didn’t decide to have their potluck the moment he arrived. It was instead many months later on a Sunday, the seemingly preferred day of the week for humans to gather with food and drink and their friends and neighbors, and this particular event saw Nenn spending much of the afternoon pressed between Mrs. Amanda Demmings (four houses down) and her younger sister, Desiree (two towns away.) Though Nenn hadn’t spoken much to Justin aside from a short greeting when he first arrived, he was nevertheless aware of his location most of the time; his human ears could apparently pick out Justin’s voice easily in a crowd no matter the size, and Nenn had spent the better part of the afternoon wondering if he could turn that skill towards a more practical use when the conversation lapsed and Desiree sighed at a pitch clearly intended to be heard.

“Look at her,” she said, with an unsubtle nod and without any prompting from either Nenn or Amanda.

Nonetheless, Nenn looked in the direction she indicated to see another young woman laughing in the crowd and swaying slightly to the music; it was a curious human habit that reminded Nenn of trees bending to an unpredictable breeze, but it attracted the eye quite well, more so than even her appearance. She had hair as dark as Justin’s, styled in small braids that followed the curvature of her skull, and even Nenn had to admit that, objectively, the pink outfit she wore provided an attractive contrast with her dark skin; he didn’t understand what he was supposed to be seeing other than these details, but every time he glanced back to Desiree for clarification, her eyes were still fixed on the woman in pink.

“Desiree?” he asked. In his experience, the people of his neighborhood needed no more encouragement to expand on their thoughts, and luckily Desiree was no different.

“Isn’t she just…impossibly gorgeous? God, I’ve been trying to work up the nerve to talk to Sam for literal years, and then she shows up looking like _that_.” Desiree sighed again, this time sounding forlorn, and Nenn responded automatically with a practiced and sympathetic pat of his hand against her shoulder.

“I don’t know why you don’t just go say ‘hi,’” Amanda said, in the tone of someone who’d said this many times before. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

“A meteor could fall from the sky, crushing us all with more than just my awkwardness?”

“Not a meteor,” Nenn corrected automatically—the Ever had made sure that wouldn’t happen, long before he’d come into separate being; there would’ve been little point in coming to Earth otherwise. “But the awkwardness, maybe.”

Desiree narrowed her eyes at him, and then jabbed him in the side with a pointed finger. He barely felt it—this body was well-muscled and sensation was slow to register most of the time, the only true hint of his artificial nature—but he winced all the same since it was expected.

“You’re one to talk, Chris,” she said, “but I’ve seen you making eyes at Justin all night. You’re _at least_ half as awkward as I am.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Nenn asked out of true curiosity, though he felt his eyes automatically sliding in Justin’s direction regardless. The setting sun should’ve made it harder for his two eyes to pick out individual people in the crowd, but for some reason it didn’t in this case, even though Justin was wearing dark clothes and stood half a head shorter than the rest. “I talk to Justin.”

“No, you talk to the ground when he’s nearby.” She looked at him with a puzzled frown, like Nenn’s alien nature was showing through despite his best efforts. “Though, what a guy who looks like you has to be nervous about when asking someone out, I have no idea. You’re the only guy I know who actually looks good in a polo shirt.” She glanced at Amanda. “No offense to Harry.”

“Oh, Harry and I have talked about that already,” Amanda said with a laugh. “And you should see what he wanted to wear instead.”

The conversation continued on the new subject of Harry’s poor clothing choices, and Nenn nodded at the appropriate times while he tried to draw the appropriate conclusion to a more important question. It was clear what Desiree had meant by her saying that she couldn’t speak to Sam—human mating rituals were complicated but still predictable in some ways, and they were very hesitant about initiating them every time—but he didn’t know how that could’ve had anything to do with his interactions with Justin. Nenn was functionally not human; it stood to reason that he wouldn’t fall victim to human feelings or impulses.

It was harder to convince himself of that when Justin came over to greet their small group, and Nenn felt his body reacting beyond his control yet again, shifting from side to side as he smiled at the decapitated grass beneath his feet. It was as awkward as anything Desiree claimed, and it brought a clarity Nenn hadn’t expected to find. He’d assumed the flaw was with his body, but it seemed that it was more complicated than that; the problem would have to be fixed, one way or another, and when Nenn left that evening’s gathering, it was to do what he was designed to do best: research. The Ever would’ve been quite proud of his thoroughness in the end, he thought, if the Ever had been capable of pride.

The following morning, at a suitable time for beings that needed sleep, Nenn walked to Justin’s house and rapped on the door an ideal five times with his curled up fist. Nenn’s extensive attention to Justin (now explained) had given him an idea of his schedule, and Justin was one of the few in their immediate neighborhood that didn’t leave his domicile for work on Mondays. Nenn didn’t know why this was, but though the lack of knowledge itched at him, he was confident he could discover the cause if only Justin allowed him to.

Nenn had just decided to knock again after seven seconds of no response, but Justin opened his door before he could and blinked up at him with tired, unguarded eyes under hair that was smashed flat and mostly to one side.

The Ever didn’t care for poetry, nor did most humans, but Nenn suspected it was a sight that should inspire poetry nonetheless.

“Chris? What’s up, man?”

“Good morning. We should go to an event. Or have dinner.” Those were the most normal activities humans did when they were looking to form an attachment; Nenn was quite sure of it, since roughly eighty percent of his sources said so. “Or…talk. We could talk.”

Justin laughed and leaned against on his door. His clothes were rumpled, as if he’d just rolled out of bed; it was an appealing thought, even for someone that mostly didn’t sleep.

“Man, you’re so weird.” Justin shook his head and scratched at his shoulder, but he was also smiling deeply enough to leave encouraging creases in his cheeks. “But sure, yeah, we can ‘go to an event.’ Though I like the dinner idea better. Tomorrow night work? Seven-ish?”

Nenn hadn’t been expecting a positive answer, not immediately, but he knew the right response was to nod. So he did, a dozen times, just to be sure. Then he confirmed vocally, as humans seemed to expect that too.

“Yes. Of course.”

“Cool.” Justin yawned. “Now, no offense, but I barely got any sleep last night. I’ll see you later, all right?”

Nenn nodded again and stepped back two feet, allowing a socially acceptable distance for Justin to close the door without seeming rude. Even though the ground was solid and familiar beneath him, he felt almost too light, as though his weight had decreased as soon as Justin agreed to their plans.

Before their dinner, Nenn planned to research that too.

*

Thanks to one of the many gifts from the Ever, Nenn had an excellent sense of the human concept of time. It wasn't particularly useful in the larger universe, but it was handy for predicting the movements of human specimens, as most of them followed it to some degree. Justin seemed to be an exception to that rule, and his proposed time of "seven-ish" at night was actually closer to eight. Nenn wasn't bothered as a human might've been, however; for a being that had existed for as long as the universe had, a few minutes meant nothing.

Justin was apologetic, though, as he handed Nenn a round pan filled with dark cake and white frosting that smelled fragrant in a way Nenn couldn't place. Justin called it "German chocolate cake, his favorite aunt's recipe" with a smile, and Nenn returned the expression and nodded, and said he was sure it would be pleasing.

Justin laughed and came inside once Nenn remembered to move enough for him to do so, but at that point, Nenn was unsure how to proceed. The answers to this question—initiating a human mating ritual past the initial agreed upon time and place and event—seemed to vary as much as the herbs and vegetables in Nenn's very carefully maintained garden. That Justin had brought an offering was promising, but Nenn knew that could be intended in many ways; the human gathering of a "potluck" didn't frequently end in a mass mating, after all.

Fortunately, Justin smiled at him and touched his arm before turning toward the kitchen, where their dinner was waiting, and Nenn's body followed automatically.

"I made your favorite," Nenn said, because he had observed that Justin ate mass quantities of his lemon chicken whenever he brought it to a shared function. "Though I don't know if it will go well with this cake."

"Oh, definitely not. We'll just have to manage though—the cake is mostly for you, anyway," Justin said, as easily as he said anything. "You have like zero percent body fat, and I thought that meant you needed chocolate."

"Thank you," Nenn said, pleased that Justin was aware of his created body, even if his observation was inaccurate. "It's not zero. It's 12.4."

"Close enough." Justin must not have seen the value in that number, because he shrugged with indifference before he sat down. "Did you want to eat now, or did you want to chat a bit first?"

The change of topic spurred Nenn into motion, and he set the cake aside and reheated their prepared plates. The burden of conversation was as heavy as it ever was, but Justin fortunately managed to carry it easily while Nenn worked, and it filled Nenn with a warmth deep inside his chest, as though he had already swallowed his chicken dish. Some of the neighbors in this area considered Justin rude for his chatter, he knew that from the information network he maintained, but Nenn thought it was nice to have someone to fill his silences, at least until he learned more about human conversation.

When Nenn sat down with their plates and the two of them began eating, surprisingly the conversation didn't stop. They talked about many things, such as Nenn’s lemon chicken recipe and their jobs (Justin was in a field involving computers, and Nenn’s answer of “research” seemed to please him, even without details), as well as the source of their homes (Justin had inherited his from family, and Nenn answered similarly), their origins of birth, their families, and their pasts. Even when Nenn's answer to any given question required careful wording, Justin frequently seemed entertained by them; the warm feeling in Nenn's chest continued as the time passed, and he was beginning to wonder if something was wrong when Justin lightly touched his arm again, and the warmth increased.

"Did you want dessert? Or _dessert_?" he asked, and there was something in the word and his expression that made Nenn suspect he wasn't asking about cake. "You know." When Nenn didn't respond, he pulled back slightly. "Or did I get this wrong?"

Nenn had watched many documentaries in preparation for this moment, and he leaned forward until he'd made up for Justin's withdrawal and then some. It wasn't comfortable and the table dug into his chest, but it made Justin look at him with his lips curved around his teeth. It was a positive sign in humans, mostly, and not often a precursor to biting, though Nenn would've gladly taken that too.

"So _weird_ ," Justin said. He sounded happy when he spoke, and then he met Nenn's lips with his own.

It was mostly what Nenn had expected—an unfortunate mashing of lips, as the documentaries had shown—but there was animal affection in it too. Some creatures nuzzled, others nipped; humans did this, and it was pleasant when Nenn ignored the sensations in favor of it being Justin, his favorite human even before he was the one who had looked at his body and brought him an apparently much-needed cake. Besides, as far as kissing went, it was improved vastly when Justin's arms circled his neck and pulled him closer, increasing the contact of their two bodies beyond just the touch of their mouths.

Nenn also liked it when Justin's hand—long, bony, but altogether desirable—slipped under the back of his shirt to trace over the shape of his spine. Nenn could feel the contact better there, close as it was to the nerves that even he had, and he pushed a little into the touch, even though it meant rocking in his chair and nearly losing contact with Justin's wet mouth. Fortunately, Justin just held on tighter and dug his fingers in, and Nenn made a completely involuntary sound when it made his penis jump in his pants. That was unusually fast, compared to his earlier experimentation, and Nenn wasn't sure how comfortable he was with his body behaving unpredictably once again.

All concern fled, however, when Justin stopped kissing him long enough to climb into his lap.

"Oh, jackpot," he said with a groan, and Nenn didn't care what he meant, because he could feel Justin responding just as he was underneath his clothes. "And here I thought maybe you were insecure, that that's what took you so long." Justin kissed his neck, and Nenn gasped, just barely, when Justin accompanied it with a rocking of his hips. "I thought maybe you were overcompensating, with your muscles and your perfect salt-and-pepper hair and your _goddamned lemon chicken._ "

"I'm just as I'm supposed to be," Nenn said, which sounded like where Justin was headed with the conversation. He was rewarded with another kiss, this one a little harder and a little wetter than the last, and it was more appealing than even the first kiss had been, appealing enough that Nenn clutched at him and tried not to let him go.

"Man, that's for sure," Justin said when he ended that kiss, before he abruptly pushed himself back and to his feet. "Where's your bedroom? Not that I'm not having fun, because I am, but I'd really like to get you naked."

The words wouldn't come, and so Nenn gestured in the direction of his bedroom. Justin grabbed his hand and lead him there like he was helpless, but Nenn didn't mind, because every few steps, Justin would stop to remove some article of clothing from one or the other of them. The skin revealed pleased Nenn in some rarely-accessed part of his brain, even though objectively he could tell that Justin was not nearly as well-muscled as Nenn's body was. It didn't matter at all, in the end, because once the journey to nudity was complete, Justin pulled his head down and kissed him again, slowly, affectionately.

It was almost enough to distract from the hard length of his penis where it pressed against Nenn's thigh. Nenn wanted to touch it, but before he could remember how—was it a twisting? a pulling? a patting?—Justin had moved away.

Before he climbed up on the bed, he tossed something to Nenn—a condom and a small bottle of lubricant. Nenn suspected he'd had them in his pants pocket, considering he'd felt their weight before, but it was a minor detail quickly forgotten as he watched Justin crawl into place among his pillows and comforter. Nenn knew the mechanics of sex, but that didn’t prepare him for having Justin on his bed with his legs spread. He was…an excellent male specimen, but more importantly, he’d kissed Nenn like he meant something by it, like the _feelings_ that plagued Nenn were catching. He hoped they were.

“Well? What are you waiting for?” Justin wiggled his hips, and Nenn was surprised how distracting he found it, considering it was objectively nothing but muscles and flesh, a vessel for nerve endings and thoughts and other less necessary things.

Bodies were fragile, though, and Nenn, in this case, was hesitant to overstate his amount of knowledge. Research could only do so much before practical application, and though Nenn knew he was capable of performing—his body's current reaction confirmed it—but he didn't know what Justin was expecting, and not disappointing Justin was of paramount importance.

“I…haven’t…”

“Never done this before?” Justin propped himself up on his elbows, and his eyes were almost too intense, even though they were still behind the barrier of his glasses. “Come here, then. I’ll show you how it’s done, if you're still interested.”

Nenn crawled forward on his hands and knees and let Justin take the supplies from his grip. The foil-wrapped condom was set aside while he opened the lubricant, and Nenn watched in fascination while he squirted it over two of his fingers and then moved his hand back towards his anus. Justin’s fingers slipped inside himself almost too easily, or so it seemed to Nenn who was worried about such things; since Justin sighed in bliss while his fingers penetrated himself, though, Nenn doubted it was a bad thing.

It also had the secondary effects of making Nenn’s half-soft penis grow erect once more, and of making Justin’s breath speed up when he noticed.

“Like what you see, huh?” Justin asked in a challenging tone, and his hand started moving faster. The wet sounds of his fingers moving in and out of himself were almost as distracting as the sight. “You like the idea of stretching me on your cock, right? Want to watch me squirm as I take it?”

“I always like watching you,” Nenn replied earnestly, and though he felt like he should explain—the Ever wanted him to observe humanity, Nenn watched them all, it wasn’t meant to alarm—it sent a private thrill through him, the idea of watching _Justin_ alone in a private way, like this.

Justin laughed with one short, single burst of air, but his gaze was soft and fond still, just like it had been at the table.

“That’s sweet. Strange, but sweet.” He picked up the condom with his free hand and opened it with his teeth, then gestured Nenn forward. 

Justin was admirably efficient when rolling the thin barrier up Nenn's penis, so much so that Nenn considered asking him for his sources and how much practice he had needed to be so adept. He decided to save the questions for another time, however, when Justin kissed him again and draped his legs over Nenn's hips. He needed very little guiding for the tip of his penis to find Justin's waiting hole, but he was convinced he was doing it incorrectly nonetheless when Justin started to shiver at the barest pressure. Nenn could see why; even with as much preparation as Justin had done earlier, his body was tight, and surely it was painful or at the very least uncomfortable.

When Nenn tried to pull back, however, Justin's legs clamped around him tightly, successfully locking him in place.

"It's good, don't worry," Justin said, and the words came out in a rapid-fire stream. "It's just because you're big. Keep going. Oh, God, keep going."

Nenn heeded his instructions and began pushing in again. This time, he watched Justin rather than focusing on the tightness around his penis, and it was rewarding to observe the flush of exertion that came to his cheeks. When Justin encouraged him to move in and out, Nenn did so, and this time he was able to look down without worrying; Justin's hole was wet from the lubricant and its tight clutch gradually loosened the more Nenn moved; it was shiny and looked soft, and Nenn couldn't resist running a finger over Justin's smooth testicles and down to massage the rim of flesh, noting its pliability and elasticity. It was the first time he'd thought about the Ever in minutes, but he hoped his research was pleasing it as much as his touch was seemingly pleasing Justin.

Nenn didn't know how long he'd been moving (his sense of time had been interfered with, somehow) when Justin started urging him to move faster, with words as well as pulling at his shoulders and hair. The expected consequence—Justin's penis releasing its semen into a mess on his stomach—followed shortly after, but since Justin didn't tell him to stop, Nenn didn't. It was easy to ignore what his body was telling him to do, urging him to find his own release, when Justin's voice went peculiar and loud and _pleased_. Nenn withheld everything and refrained from every sensation until Justin was writhing against him a second time, and it was only after Justin added to the mess of semen on his skin a second time and went limp that Nenn allowed himself to stop.

He'd known mating was physically enjoyable from previous solo experiences, but nothing prepared him for the feeling of orgasm while being held in another's arms. It was far different—more enjoyable by twenty percent at least—but it also couldn't be matched by the feelings he got from the sloppy kiss that Justin pressed to his cheek afterward. Nenn was reluctant to pull away, but previous experiences _also_ told him that he didn't want their semen to dry between them, and the cooling condom was not a pleasant sensation even to him.

Once he had stood to dispose of it, however, and returned with a washing cloth to wipe the excess fluid from Justin's skin, Justin's arms were open and waiting for him.

"Oh my God," Justin said, because that seemed to be his default reaction to anything that surprised or overwhelmed him. "Why didn't you tell me that you're fucking gifted in bed?"

"Should I have?" Nenn asked, and though he was sincere, he was also not functioning at his full mental capabilities. Justin's light swat to his shoulder might therefore have been justified.

"Of course! We could've been doing this months ago," Justin said as he pulled himself further into Nenn's space. "You probably don't remember meeting me, but—then. We could've been doing this since _then._ "

Nenn did remember meeting Justin; Justin had been the first person to smile at him, the first person to talk to him at all, in the entirety of his existence at that point. There was no explanation for that, though, and so he merely nodded.

"I would've liked that," Nenn said, and the part of him that wasn't focused on catching his breath and returning his heartbeat to normal was focused on Justin's light touch against his back, his arms, even his soft penis. Was it hesitancy that kept his grip from turning hard again, or was it contentment? Disappointment? How often did humans mate in one encounter?

“Did you want something different?” Nenn asked, suddenly uncertain. He knew that humans changed their genitals on occasion, but nothing in his research suggested it was spontaneous or something that occurred during or after mating; nonetheless, he was willing to try, if Justin wanted that. “I can change it.”

Justin just laughed.

“I think I was expecting the dick, though maybe not the size,” he said, with another light brush of his hand that made Nenn’s breath catch all over again, “but I’m adventurous. Surprise me.”

Nenn did. He did more complicated manipulations of reality all the time, so it was no trouble at all to add a few features; the penis stayed, because Justin seemed to like it, but he added a few more holes (his assessment of human pornography said those were ideal), then a few more flexible columns of flesh. There was a lot of inspiration to be found on this planet, and he was admittedly quite proud of the end result.

He didn’t expect Justin to turn pale the instant he finished and yank his hand back so hard that he fell off the bed, but the immediate shock and revulsion on his face made Nenn revise his previous assessment about this human body; though sensations were often dulled, he could feel pain perfectly, as it turned out.

“You said to surprise you,” Nenn said. His confusion almost overpowered the hurt, but only almost; he was certain that, if Justin hadn’t been on the ground, he would’ve ran out the door already, without even stopping to pick up the trail of his clothes. “Didn’t you say that?”

“I didn’t really mean—I didn’t think you _could_!” Justin said, and his voice was high, nervous, almost afraid as he scrambled to his feet. “I thought you were going to tell me you had a sheath, or a toy, or something!” He shook his head and backed up a step, then another. “Fucking hell, Chris. You’re—what are you?”

“A being not from this planet,” Nenn said quietly, “that likes you.”

For some reason, that stopped Justin from backing up further, though it didn't make up for the space that was already between them.

“You’re an alien. You make amazing lemon chicken and help Mrs. Evans with her composting and help Pete pretend to know what he’s doing with cars, and you’re an alien.” Though Justin said the words, his tone was one of incomprehension. He followed it with a look of muted horror towards Nenn's genitals, and his eyes bulged slightly in shock when Nenn hurriedly returned them to their former state. “Is that, uh, what you really look like? Down…there?”

“No.” Nenn suspected that admitting he looked like nothing in reality would not help the situation. “I...thought you might like it better.”

“That’s, well. Really, er, _nice_ of you, though I wasn’t kidding would I said I was fine with the dick. Um, good job on that, by the way.” Justin laughed, but unlike it's usual warm, slightly raspy sound, this time it sounded nothing short of hysterical. “Look, I’m sorry. This is a lot to take in for a first date. I’m…gonna go now.”

Nenn nodded and didn't stand. He suspected Justin would run if he did.

“I understand.”

In the end, apparently his choice to remain safely in bed didn't matter; Justin ran anyway.

*

Nenn didn’t know what to expect after Justin left. His research on the subject of humans discovering other beings on their planet was not promising, much less under these circumstances. Justin had called him sweet, and nice, and many good things in the human language, but was it enough to overcome a culture of alarm where “aliens” were concerned? Nenn didn’t know, and no amount of research seemed to hold a satisfactory answer, nor did the cake that he consumed by himself in the interim, nor did the Ever itself. After many days of searching (and an entire cake being eaten) he was considering the wisdom of retreating from this planet or at least into another form, something still and quiet and not at all affected by human moods like sadness, when he heard a sound at his door. It was Friday by then, late in the evening, and Nenn suspected it was a well-meaning neighbor; if he’d learned one thing about humans in his time on Earth, it was that they were often well-meaning, if clumsy about it. They might’ve noticed him not leaving his home, or that he’d been quieter in passing conversation lately, or possibly they wanted to extend an invitation. He wanted none of it, but Chris was polite at least, so he managed to drag his body to the door and fix a smile on his face.

When Nenn opened the door, it was Justin standing there, and Nenn was speechless. He doubted even the Ever had expected him to return.

“I’ve been driving myself crazy over this, the past few days,” Justin said, before Nenn could even manage a single word. “But we probably shouldn’t talk about it on your front lawn. Can I come in?”

Nenn nodded and stepped aside to let Justin in, and Justin didn’t seem to notice that his arm brushed Nenn’s as he moved past. Nenn tried to ignore the tingle and the heat as he closed the door behind him, because Justin was here, at least, and he didn’t seem scared. Whatever that meant, Nenn was sure it was an improvement over how they’d ended things last time.

“You wanted to talk?” Nenn asked as soon as the door closed, but he was speaking mostly to Justin’s back because Justin was pacing in his living room.

“I have questions. _So many questions_ ,” Justin said. “But I keep thinking about something you said, about your job.” He took a deep breath; it didn’t seem to calm him at all. “’Research,’ right? It’s for when the rest of the aliens show up for the invasion, right?”

“There won’t be any more,” Nenn said. “It’s just research.” The explanation seemed inadequate, so he tried again. “We like…knowing things. I’m supposed to know things.”

“And that’s it? You don’t want our resources, or something? You don’t need, like, human test subjects, or livestock? You don't want to harvest our essence and eat our flesh?”

“This planet doesn’t have as many resources as you think,” Nenn said, “and no. I’m fine with the chicken.”

That made Justin laugh for some reason, and all at once, the frantic energy around him dissipated. He sat down heavily on Nenn’s couch, right between the center and left cushions, and looked at Nenn with something like understanding.

“You’re so _weird_ ,” he said again, “but you’re an alien, so that makes sense. The problem is, I think I might be into it.” He sighed and smiled, that same soft smile from before. “Don’t conquer my planet or turn us into Soylent Green or anything, and we’ll be cool, Chris.” He suddenly frowned. “Except…you’re an alien—no way is your name ‘Chris.’”

“It’s Nenn,” Nenn said, and he watched Justin mouth the sound. It was surprising how much it filled him with joy—Nenn hadn’t known he had any attachment to this name, any more than he had an attachment to this body. And yet, if he concentrated, he could feel his own heart beating, harder and harder with each second.

He sat next to Justin on the couch and said nothing else, but he didn’t need to; Justin silently took his hand, entangling their fragile fingers together.

“We’re cool, Nenn,” Justin said, “and I like you too.” 

Nenn and the Ever believed him.


End file.
